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Dave McMenamin, ESPN Staff Writer
DENVER — Minneapolis is partying like it’s 2004. The Minnesota Timberwolves are back in the Western Conference Finals for the first time in 20 years.
Trailing by as many as 20 points in the third quarter, the Timberwolves fought back to complete the biggest Game 7 comeback in the past 25 postseasons, winning 98-90 on Sunday night and defeating the defending defense. They dethroned the champion Denver Nuggets.
Meanwhile, the Nuggets are the defending champions who failed to advance to the conference finals for the fifth straight year.
As Minnesota’s 22-year-old breakout star Anthony Edwards struggled on a 6-of-24 shooting night, Wolves’ four-time All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns looked the most impressive of his nine-year career. showed a great performance.
Towns, who was the team’s No. 1 overall pick in 2015 and is the team’s longest-serving player, scored 23 points with 12 rebounds, two steals and one blocked shot. More importantly, he played as effective one-on-one defense as anyone could expect against Denver’s three-time MVP Nikola Jokic.
Jokic finished with 34 points and 19 rebounds, making 13 of 28 and 2 of 10 from 3-point range.
This was Towns’ fifth 20-point game in the postseason, with all five players playing.
“Tonight was tough for me because I just couldn’t find my rhythm,” Edwards said. “So I just had to trust my teammates. … I had to make the right plays the rest of the game. I did that and my teammates made shots. Big shout out to them. want to send.”
The Timberwolves went on a 32-9 run from 10:50 of the third quarter to 11:14 of the fourth to take control of the game from the Nuggets. Edwards had just one hit in nine at-bats in the starting lineup, but got off to a slow start and found his rhythm, scoring nine points in the third, including a step-back 3 that beat the quarter buzzer.
Rudy Gobert, a four-time Defensive Player of the Year, started the first game and added unexpected offensive power in the fourth quarter, scoring eight of his 13 points in the final frame (a miraculous turnaround). (including a jump shot). -for-5.
“It feels great,” Gobert said. “It feels good to win against a team like them, an unbelievable team, a championship team that has the best players in the world.”
Minnesota led by as many as 10 points on Edwards’ corner 3 with 3:05 left in the fourth, and the Nuggets were called for a timeout as Edwards screamed, jumped for joy and hugged courtside fans.
The 20th meeting between the two teams between the regular season and playoffs since the start of the 2022-23 season was traditional and the most enthralling game of the series. Of the first six games in the conference semifinals, only two were decided by less than 10 points, and three ended up being decided by 25 points or more.
“That was a hell of a series,” Denver coach Michael Malone said. “They did everything we could and in the end we were able to win Game 7 on our home court. It was a tough game to swallow. But we’ll be back. right.”
Minnesota is now 2-0 in Game 7s in franchise history, becoming the only team in NBA history to remain undefeated in Game 7s.
The Wolves will face the Dallas Mavericks for the right to represent the West in the NBA Finals. Minnesota will host Game 1 on Wednesday.
According to ESPN BET odds, the Wolves open as -150 favorites to win the series against the Mavericks, who check in at +130.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
